BS: Gardening, 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 10:11 PM

Just found the correct home for that puzzling post at 06:52, SRS. The poster replicated his/her post in its intended thread, so the mistake can safely be removed.

I suggest that we ask for the 06:52 post-by-error to be removed along with this one so as to avoid confusion. Thanks to whatever Moderator-type happens to amble along this way and feels moved to assist.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 10:01 PM

SRS, I suspect that s&r is even now wondering where on earth his/her post went. Just a mistake, I think.

Digging 3-5" burdocks out today, along with other medicinals in weed form; jewel weed, colts foot, mint, and the like. In so doing, I uncovered one of my rose beds I haven't been able to tend for a year or more.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 09:15 PM

First cuke... Hooray... 'Maters ain't too far behind...

Cut down three paradise trees and the deer are on them like ugly on a gorilla... If I wanted to fill my freezer with venison, I could do it in an hour... That includees the butcherin'...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 08:49 PM

Sooooo cool, the glad and dahlia bulbs survived overwintering in pots, which I did not expect, and are now coming up among the petunias and marigolds that I planted in the pots this spring. I am so far north of most of you, just the idea of having anything to harvest makes me think of August. The buds on my raspberries are not even all blooming yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 08:15 PM

And this has WHAT to do with GARDENING?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: s&r
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 06:52 PM

I see that there are plans to rebroadcast the interview with MJ and Martin Bashir. I hope the family fight this: my view of the broadcast is that it shoved a naive immature person being pictured in a poor light by a publicity seeking journalistic machine. I thought it indefensible and heavily polarised towards the scandalous view.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jul 09 - 06:51 PM

Tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes. Picking them several times a day, a couple of handfuls each trip. I'll be doing some canning this weekend, to get a little practice and start the process of preserving next fall and winter's food. I love it!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 08:58 PM

The mustang grapes are still quite green, but in a couple of weeks they'll be going full tilt in the tree across the road. I'm thinking about using a deer stand to reach some of them. I found a place to maybe get my hands on one. . .

There is a lot of poison ivy coming up, so as much as I had herbicides, I hate poison ivy more, so I'm going to spritz the sprouts coming up in the grass. The ones that are away from the tree but that we would brush against coming and going. I'll also hit it with the weed whacker later, but for now, I'd like to kill that stuff. I lopped off some of the big vines that were growing up into this tree last year, so hopefully there won't be quite so much, though I'm sure it made a comeback this spring.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 08:51 PM

Seems that we are sharing our berries (black raspberries and goose(wine)berries) with the crows... Not the best year for berries... Last year I had twice as many black raspberries... Maybe needs some manure for next year... May not have enough to make jam... That would be a bad thing 'cause that jam lasts all year... But we still have a couple weeks before they give out...

Meanwhile the goose(wine)berries are startin' to come in... We've never made jam from them but maybe this year will the first...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maire-aine
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 08:00 PM

Got a birthday present from Mother Nature today: my black raspberries started to ripen. I found (and ate) about 8 of them this afternoon. There are more that are close, but I'll wait until tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 04:38 PM

I miss having a dog around... Sniff...

Back in Wes Ginny, Janie, I had a 300 gallong rain barrel under my rear deck and had two downspouts going directly into it with an overflow... I mounted a 110 volt pump to it and tied it in with an underground hose that went back to the veggie garden... Then all I had to do was hit a switch and the there was enough pressure from that pump to work and air-rator sprinkler... Purdy cool...

As for here, we have about 15 5 gallon buckets and one 40 gallon plastic trash can under the eve of one of the barns... About an inch of rain will fill 'um... But the plants shi nuff like rain water better than well water...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 03:34 PM

We had a stray puppy in the yard last night for a few hours. He bonded with my dogs, and I went so far as to give him a quick bath to remove some of the seeds (burs) and fleas and let him in the dash around the back yard for a few minutes. Cinnamon loved it, Poppy was jealous. She chased also, but Cinnamon kept her away, and if I caught Cinnamon, Poppy barked at him, telling him to "bugger off" in so many barks. :) He was about 3 - 4 months old, a pit bull (American Staffordshire Terrier, like Cinnamon). They're real athletes, even that young, and those two tore around like a little canine tornado. I thought I'd try him in the back, and if both dogs were nice to him he could stay for a while until owners turned up. Since Poppy was rude I brought him out again. After I then he was at the side porch and kept walking in the oregano and bumping into pots.

He chewed up some cheap nursery pots and tumbled over a couple of small plants. He's not there today so I assume he probably followed someone walking a dog this morning (probably the blonde lab who lives up the street). He's smart and sweet, but I don't need another dog. If he turns up again I'll see about taking him to the Humane Society and maybe his owners will look for him there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maire-aine
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 02:59 PM

I can't run the lawn mower until a week from Friday, but if it gets to shaggy, I'll pay a neighbor kid to mow it. I deadheaded everything, and took the shears to my winter heaths. They were crowding out the summer heathers.

maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 30 Jun 09 - 01:08 AM

Oh My, maeve. That is a lot of rain at what I imagine is a critical time of year in Maine, when you want enough rain, but still need to work the soil.

The hot temperatures here are starting to take their toil. We had some good rain this spring, and the water tables are replenished, but have had heat and no significant rain for the last two weeks, and the clay soil is starting to crack and dry out.

I'm wondering just how many rain barrels it would take to adequately meet irrigation needs for a relatively small garden here during the heat and dryness of summer. Also wondering what would be involved in terms of labor, design and cost of materials to use rain barrels for drip irrigation. Watering by hand sufficiently takes much more time than I have available. It also seems like it would take significant storage capacity when the rains come (hopefully in winter and spring) to store enough rain water from roof run off to use that as a primary irrigation source during our hot, and usually dry summers.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 06:18 PM

There is a chance of rain, but it is getting bright out there after an overcast afternoon, so I think our chance just evaporated.

I've lost one tomato plant pretty much completely to mites, I think this is a spot in the garden where I need to do some work on the drainage. I'll make mounded rows next year. The fruits are still ripening, but it won't set any more. Once they have about finish I'll pull that out, do something about the contour, and put in a tomato for fall.

Only about 95 today, nice out. I'll mow this evening.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 10:48 AM

Mulch (and cleaning out affected leaves) controls the Early Blight by stopping the fungus spores from splashing up from the soil. We like pine needles (pine straw) best of all for tomatoes and strawberries. Late blight apparently isn't so easily controlled. I wish we could buy straw for mulching, but we usually can't even afford hay. I use whatever I can, including pulled weeds on top of newspaper, old natural fiber rugs, and wood shavings from a boat building school in the paths.

We are using our own potatoes for seed potatoes too, as well as having lots of potatoes that overwintered to use for early potatoes. Some of our tomatoes are from seed, some from cuttings, and some we bought at several different places.

We hand pick Striped Cucumber beetles (bad this year), Colorado Potato Beetles, and the Red Lily Beetles. The State Horticulturalist who approves our certification mentioned an appropriate organic insecticide for the lily beetles. I'll have to look it up. I hope that the steady rain has at least drowned most of the Japanese Beetle larva as it did a couple of years ago. If not, we'll hand pick them a few times a day as well; the chickens will gorge themselves and my hands will smell of roses. I'm already watching for the Tomato Hornworm.

I've opened up the farmstand as we seem to be between showers.

maeve

Today's rain makes it 18 days of rain in the last 28 days.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 09:53 AM

Well, we've used last years potatoes as seed potatoes so I think we're okay and we grow all our tomatoes from seed so I hope that we're okay there, as well...

Last year we had fungus on our tomatoes and had to remove alot of lower leaves... If I remmeber correctly, one of the reeasons was that we had not sufficeintly mulched but I'm not sure on that... Anyway, we have a good 6 inches of straw under them this year and so far, so good...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 07:32 AM

Late Blight warning (Potato Famine disease)

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jun 09 - 12:41 AM

I think we've discussed "Bob's your uncle" in various contexts. Here. It's one of those idiomatic sayings that if you hear it often enough it begins to make sense.

Wearing my gentle perfume of fish oil and BT this evening. I mixed up several gallons and did a drench around all of the tomatoes, eggplants, and corn. These are things I have have seen worms in or know them to attack. Here's hoping the huge holes in the tomatoes stop. I found one caterpillar in action and dropped it on the concrete and squashed it. My daughter commented a couple of minutes later that it was already completely dried up. It's so hot, and those are 99% liquid (tomato juice, in this case!) that they are gone in a flash.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 11:49 PM

Re the above spread of blight. That is exactly how the Japanese Red beatle spread across England. They came in with a Batch of Asiatic Lillys has a consignment for a large well know Garden Centre were consquently sold nationwide through thousands of outlets and there you go "Bobs your Uncle" Nationwide infeatation.

Regards Pierre.

Ps."Bobs your uncle" is a very old saying in England genually used to make a point.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 09:11 PM

We're being warned about late blight on tomatoes and potatoes. Apparently some of the box stores have sold infested tomato plants, and the spores are causing the disease to spread across the country (US).

No sign of it here yet. In the morning I'll see what information I can find to confirm. The solution is to pull and bag up the plants to halt the spread of the spores.

Rain again today. I weeded the basket willows. The Maiden's Blush roses are beginning to open exquisite pale pink blossoms, deeper pink toward the center. The fragrance should be wonderful this year, as I've planted some in the front hedgerow and have others along the chicken shed border- hope the rain doesn't spoil all the buds.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 01:20 PM

I have to get my huge spruce tree in the back yard sprayed with B.T. PRONTO!! I found spruce bud worm hatching on the tips last night, right before sundown. My hose applicator won't reach the top, so I emailed my tree care guy last night and he will spray B.T. on it this afternoon, even though it is Sunday. If they killed that tree, my back yard would be bare and ugly and lose a lot of privacy, not to mention a beautiful piece of bird habitat and all the other wonderful things about a mature spruce tree. The trees in our area are being attacked by both spruce bud worm and pine beetle. There is a campaign by the city and university campus to try to save as many as possible with B.T. and beetle pheromones and removing host trees and infested firewood.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 12:37 PM

My large back garden backs on to a railway tracks and I get Foxes in my garden all the time. They are used to me for I pay them no attention.
They often arrange themselves on my bench and laze out in the sun behaving has if they own the place,
On my large pond is a model of the R.m.s. Titanic anchored securely to the bottom and a large Iceberg fashioned from polystyrene close by all layered in Boat Varnish both stand up to the elements very well but I do remove them in winter.
Well the Frogs and Toads play havov with the model often turning it over in there vain attempts to jump aboard which menas poor me has to put on the welly boots and wade out and Raise Titanioc from the depths of the pond. Moast of the small articles of the model have long since broken away and become lost but the hulk of Titanic still remains floating on my pond with the frogs and the toads making Mischief. My neighbours think Im Mad.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 08:30 AM

Seems that our worst pests this year are the four legged variety... Mr Raccon sin't even waiting until it get fully dark before coming around to dig around anything that has been planted recently... We've had to start puting rocks all around newly planted stuff to keep his little mischievious self from digging them up...

Then yesterday morning there we two young foxes right in the yard... With cats around I had to chase them off for fear of one hurting or killing one of our cats...

The deer have decided that if we're going to keep them out of our woods gardens then that means that stuff right next to the house is fair game...

Well, for this morning, a little more weeding, then mulching, in the veggie garden and then a arae afternoon off...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 06:38 AM

I had to google the red lily beetle as I had never heard of it. Fortunately, it has not made an appearance in these parts.

Hope it stays that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 01:03 AM

Hi Folks
I like Red Hot Pokers if you remove the flowers at the right time you get a endless supply all summer long.
A generous pinch of Fish bone and blood mixed with a pinch of Phosphate of Ammoania and a good watering brings out the most gorgouse Olive Green leaves I have ever seen. ( a very Good watering or you will burn the Plant) place round base of plant.

Despite terrible White Fly Problems Thankfully I do not have Slug and Snail Problems due to my large pond and its large family of Frogs and Toads who eat slugs and snails has a main diet.

My Asiatic Lillys are lovely but once again these were prone to pests
in the shape of a Bright Red Square shaped beatle called
The Japanese lilly beatle and this thing just devastated the leaves of the plant.
These are not a plant found in a typical Cottage Garden. But they are stunning plants with great flowers. But come often with a pest in the shape of a Red Beatle Square in body and very tough in respects that they are immune to almost everything one can spray at them.

I have now got rid of the pest simple by looking out for the beatle while Im in the garden. They are quite active during the Day if I see one i pick it off the plant with a pair of tweezers and throw it in the fish pond where my fish then have a meal.
I have caught so many in this fashion I have now killed off all the mating pairs so I think Im Japanese red beatle free. I have dug up around the base of the lillys in order to kill off any Eggs that may have been laid early this year.

This process of drowning the Japanese Red Beatle is the only effective way I have found of erradicating the pest from my lovely Lillys . if anyone on this thread have problems with this pest but dont have a Fishpond a bucket of water without fish is just has effective for these insects are helpless in water. Tweezers are the best way of picking these creatures up for if you drop them they fall to the ground belly up and you cant find them.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 12:23 AM

Thrips do have some predators, as discussed above. If you use beneficial nematodes that should help break the cycle. Read more about the organic approach here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: peregrina
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 06:37 PM

new anti-snail and slug measure (the critters have been on the binge again despite free beer): two large roof tiles blocking off the route from their hideout in the honeysuckle. Probably they'll just climb over and I'll need to add copper tape.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 06:21 PM

The butterfly pea that grows wild on the dry bank along one side of my property is blooming. They don't put out a lot of blooms, but are stunning, nontheless.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 06:09 PM

I didn't take a lot of time with the research, but it does sound like there are several species of other insects that prey on whiteflies. Ladybugs apparently are a predator, though a fairly insignificant one. Not knowing which of these species bugs might be indigenous to Pierre's area, and being somewhat hesitant about introduced insect species, I didn't mention them.

Perhaps, Pierre, you could research beneficial insects that prey on whitefly larva and nymphs, and then plant flowers that would attract the beneficials? While I don't think the evidence is that beneficials are sufficient control, they will help. And from what I understand, you need all the help you can get with whiteflies.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 05:57 PM

Not too sure, Pierre, if you can buy lady bugs but they are very good little workers that eat lots of pests... Some places sell them and ship them to you...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 05:52 PM

Dadgum, another post that didn't "take"!

So I'll try again.

It is not too hot for either. I see a lot of red-hot poker in gardens here so it apparently does fine. I'm not asthetically drawn to it, so have never grown it myself. The issue with lavender where I live on the northeast Piedmont is not the heat, it is our clay soil. I've grown lavender successfully in raised beds filled with purchased sandy loam. It did well, but was short-lived, and had to be replaced every 2-4 years.    I have an acquaintance north of town who commercially specializes in lavender. She has heavily amended her fields to promote good drainage, and also finds the plants are not long-lived, though "Spanish" lavender appears to do better than "English" varieties.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 05:19 PM

Hi Jeanie
I mean the Trash, if I cut them off at ground level, New stems will sprout.
I have looked up the internet and indeed it is Thrips. There are Numourous remedies on the ineternet and E.Bay.

Question. Is it to hot In North Carolina to grow Lavender and Red Hot Pokers?

Im a Woodie Guthrie Fan and play his music do you live in the Dust Bowl?

Have you heard of Skunk Cabbage. I brought some for the out regions of my pond and I now know whwre the name come from?

Good Health Pierre.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 04:42 PM

If by bin, you mean compost them, I wouldn't. They will have eggs and nymphs which are quite likely to survive composting.    Or in the UK does "to bin" refer to putting them in the trash to be hauled away?

If ever I get to Maine, I want it to be when the lupines are blooming wild in the meadows there. It is too hot here to have much success with lupines. I planted them once but they didn't make it in the heat and drought of a North Carolina summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 03:51 PM

Thanks Janie.

These Whitefly ,Thrips Aphids, what ever they are just go for the lupin. I must look up the three names above on the internet to find out exactly what I have got then maybe I can deal with them effectively.

I live in Southean England 10 miles from London where the Climite is mild and sunny but winters can be cold. (Nothing in comparission to what you folk get across the pond.in REGARDS TO WINTER.)

I have no privets myself but the neighbourhood is covered in them.

If I cut the plants down at soli level they will grow again and it will be easy to tackle the blighters. I wont burn the cutting I will bin them .
Thanks Pierre.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 03:03 PM

Hi Pierre,

Where are you located? Do you know if you have other host plants for whitefly? There are a number of different species. Some of them are partial to particular plants. Where I live, in the southeast USA, privets are the most common host plant. I had privet hedges all around my old house, and had a large cottage garden that sounds similar to yours. I didn't grow lupines, and mostly found the whiteflies bothered lilies and echinacea, though they didn't swarm them as badly as you describe.

In reading, it sounds like lupines are very vulnerable to aphids, thrips and whitefly.

I used a combination of yellow sticky traps, insecticidal soap, and simply hosing them off the plants to control them, but it probably would have taken removing the privets all together to really control them. The problem is they breed so quickly. Hosing probably worked as well as anything, but I would have to do it twice a day. I think it's really important to get after them as soon as they appear, and that is why the sticky traps are useful. The insecticidal soap is a contact killer and is effective on adults. However, it may require spraying every 2-3 ays for a couple of weeks and every one or two weeks after that. I'd be concerned about burning the plants with that kind of schedule.

I dug up and brought some of my lilies with me when I moved last year, and in doing so, inadvertently also brought whitefly. However, there are no privets here and it appears I have eliminated them.

I think it unlikely you can eliminate them from your lupine, which is apparently a significant host plant. Probably the most realistic goal is to control them enough that they do not absolutely weaken and marr the plant and blooms. You will probably need to plan on dealing with them at least daily during the peak of the whitefly season.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: GUEST,Pierre Le Chapeau.
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 02:16 PM

Hi Folks
I am a keen Gardener and over the last 5 years I have tranformed my garden into a Cottage Garden whereby all the Flowers planted are common in what is known has a English country Garden.

Everything from Lavender to Hollyhocks, Red Hot Pokers, to Lupins. among many others.

Lupins are my problem not from slugs or Snails I am fortunate that I do not get many slugs and snailS because i have a large fish pond and that houses hundreds of Frogs and Toads who eat the snails and slugs before they can eat my plants.

Can you help?

The problem with my Lupins is that dreadful Aphid the Whitefly.
it smothers the flower heads and the leaves and devaststates the plant.

Please dont suggest washing up liquid it does not work.
Old wives Tale. If you pour washing up liquid on my Lupins
The Whitefly simply take a shower.

What I plan to do is cut the plant down to just above ground level and burn the infested plants.
Lupins being very hardy will start to grow all over again and this time I will be ready for the White fly.

The trouble is what is effective again,st these pests and Earth friendly to?
                      What do you folk suggest.
Thanks very much kindest Regards to all
Pierre.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 12:56 PM

I'm finding that the newer potting mix formulations designed for improved water retention really are much better, even than last year. Pots are not drying out nearly as quickly as in years past.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 11:23 AM

Tomatoes are piling up on the window sill. I've finished with the onions and they're in cardboard trays on a thing in the hall, drying out some and the box of oddball ones (the small, the odd-shaped, etc.) are first up for use.

Time to think about defrosting the freezer. Getting ready for this year's crop.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 10:35 AM

Well, verse, yeah, if the hybrids become the only plants left but that isn't the case... Hyrids are just extras... That's kinda the beauty of gardening... When it comes down to it bees are hybridizers... They will take polen from one azalea, for instance, to another and thus, a new azalea... So all hybridizers do, in most cases, is just fill in as bees...

It used to be that camellias wouldn't grow north of Richmond, Va. but Dr Ackerman found that some were more cold hardy than others so he hybridized cold hardiness into several hybrids and now folks as far north as New York can enjoy them... Eventually bees might have down the same thing but why wait... Men are part of God's creatures, too...

Well, biggest concert of the year was last night in town so today is a fee day for me so think I'll go out and do a little gardeing today... No, make that alot...

The P-Vine gave me a list...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 09:21 AM

Maryanne, I've been learning to do the canning over the last year. A friend helps me with jelly from local grape I can can my tomatoes and products from my garden.

The mites are as suspected-- I think the soil is too wet in that area. I need to be disciplined and run the soaker hose less often and water deeper, to let the soil drain. And before planting again I'll contour a little and add some more gravel to help (decomposed granite, etc.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 08:19 AM

Glad the surgery went well! Now you will see the beauty of your garden so much more clearly!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maire-aine
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 07:50 AM

Last night, my friend & I went to see the new documentary movie Food, Inc. . It's enough to make you want to run right out and buy canning jars to preserve your own food. It started me thinking about what we ate when I was a kid: a roast on Sunday & leftovers during the week, dessert also was a Sunday-only thing (not at every meal).

I was already making plans to can my grandmother's chili sauce recipe. Now I think I'll do up some tomatoes & peaches too. We're fortunate to have several excellent farmers' markets nearby.

Maryanne

PS: Eye doctor said all is well, and I've been cleared to drive (after cataract surgery Thurs).

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Jun 09 - 04:19 AM

If there's one vegetable/fruit that's worth growing yourself, SRS, it would have to be the tomatoe, yes?...in stores they are generally bland (although the vine tomatoes are not too bad).

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 08:26 PM

Firefox is a great program. Chrome has rearranged things, so I don't use it as often. IE stinks right now.

Geez, but it's hot out there. 103 today. The corn is looking much better, so for now I seem to have killed off that batch of destroyers, whatever their make and model. Big tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I'm trying to water often enough to keep it alive without keeping it soggy (I use a soaker hose most of the time so I tend to run it for short times more often, but should probably switch to longer times less often.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 12:54 PM

Well if there are no ears yet, they sure aren't earworms.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 11:59 AM

Thanks for that list, Bobert - not a bad palette, I think...but doesn't hybridizing plants make them less attractive to native insects, etc., by breeding out the nectar in favour of the colours that please us humans..?

(SRS - if you'll pardon the poetry, I'm making do, with a Pentium 2, by using Google Chrome...could be worth a try..?)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 11:39 AM

Grrrr. Looks like mites. It's too hot for neem.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 09 - 12:24 AM

Janie, I'll open this in FireFox later and take a look at your links. IE is a piece of shit as a browser lately, won't open links very easily, if at all. The corn is small, no ears yet, but I've heard it is fussy.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 25 Jun 09 - 11:02 PM

Are they corn ear borers Maggie?

Around these parts, spraying with BT, combined with applying mineral oil to the top of the ear with an eye dropper are necessary to control corn borers. Successful organic corn is pretty labor intensive because it requires so much vigilance and spraying. I've not tried to grow corn since I moved to NC because I know I don't have the time to spray as often as needed, and certainly not enough time to treat each ear with mineral oil.

More here.

and here.

Not everyone agrees that organic corn is that hard.   See this.